


A Lantean Christmas

by Brumeier



Series: Life in the Yukon [10]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Stargate Atlantis, The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Small Town, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Kissing, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22051567
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brumeier/pseuds/Brumeier
Summary: It's Rodney's first Christmas in Alaska, and he'll need to learn some new traditions if he wants to fit in.
Relationships: Evan Lorne/Clone Jack O'Neill, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg, Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, Ronon Dex/Evan Lorne
Series: Life in the Yukon [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1095657
Comments: 35
Kudos: 99
Collections: What If? AU Challenge





	A Lantean Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Whatif_AU: Christmas/Winter Holiday

Rodney had thought, when he spent any time thinking of it at all, that his new hometown would kick off the Christmas season in typical fashion: a tree lighting, maybe a parade. He should’ve known better. No-one in Alaska did things in the expected way.

“At least they’re not doing it in their underwear,” Rodney commented, hands wrapped around a mug of hot chocolate.

“Not a good idea when chainsaws are involved,” John replied. He had his arms around Rodney and his chin resting on Rodney’s shoulder. 

John’s presence warmed Rodney more than any hot chocolate ever could.

The main square in town was full of people carving giant blocks of ice with chainsaws, hammers, chisels, even heat guns. The ice had been harvested earlier in the week, which Rodney only knew about because John had helped haul it off the lake, and there’d be a winner declared once all the sculptures were done.

“Who won last year?” Rodney asked. He wasn’t really interested, but he liked the warm puff of John’s breath against his ear.

“Pete Miller took the prize last year, but only because Evan had a sprained wrist.”

“Oh? Is he favored to win?”

John chuckled. “Bernard says he’s the front-runner.”

Rodney focused his attention in on Evan, who was usually in the kitchen of the Pegasus Café whipping up culinary wonders. He seemed to be wielding his small-sized chainsaw with competence, his waiter boyfriend standing by to hand him tools as necessary. Evan’s other boyfriend was helping JB at the food station, handing out cups of hot cocoa and bowls of hot soup.

Blair, the radio DJ for K-LAN, was doing a live feed, reporting on the progress of each contestant and interviewing random people in the crowd. His boyfriend – Rodney couldn’t remember the guy’s name but knew he didn’t live in town – trailed along after him like a solemn bodyguard.

Rodney was secretly certain that Lantea was the gayest small town in America.

“How come you’re not out there slinging ice?”

John huffed out another laugh. “Fine right where I am.”

He pressed a kiss to the side of Rodney’s head, and it was impossible for Rodney to keep from smiling. He turned and gave John his full attention, while still conscious that they were in full public view. No need to give anyone a show.

“Thank you, Lantea!” Evan shouted when he won, holding his trophy aloft.

*o*o*o*

Rodney had spent hours at the research station, sifting through data and writing up proposals on how to expend the coming year’s budget. What he’d really like was a more powerful telescope, but that would involve grant writing and he wasn’t particularly skilled at the nuances involved in sweet-talking someone out of a pile of money.

When he emerged at the end of the day, stretching to get some of the kinks out of his back, he found Aiden decorating one of the trees near the station’s back door.

“What are you doing?”

“Just putting a little cheer on your tree, Doc,” Aiden replied with a grin, and kept walking around winding lights up through the branches. “John was going to, but he got delayed in Anchorage.”

“Oh. Well, carry on, I guess.”

Christmas had never been a big holiday for Rodney. He never felt the need to buy unnecessary gifts for people who likely wouldn’t appreciate them anyway, not like other people in his department always had. Chocolates, hats, mugs…useless things that would be almost immediately forgotten.

And don’t even get him started on the waste of energy that came with decorating. It was fine if other people wanted to go all out with lights and wreaths and trees and ceramic villages, but Rodney just didn’t see the point.

Therefore, he wasn’t too thrilled to get home and find a strange woman and three young children on his porch, along with boxes of holiday decorations.

“No,” Rodney said as soon as he got out of his truck.

“Dr. McKay. I trust you are well.”

“Oh. It’s you. The school teacher, right?”

It was hard to make her out with the big jacket and furry hood that was obscuring most of her body and face, but Rodney recognized her voice and her oddly formal way of speaking. 

“Teyla,” she replied. 

“Right, yes. Why are you here?”

“To put up Christmas cheer!” one of the children said. They were all similarly outfitted in furry jackets and Rodney had no idea if it was a boy or a girl who spoke.

“It is your first Christmas in Lantea,” Teyla explained, “and the children would like to share our traditions with you.”

Rodney looked in one of the boxes and saw neat loops of tree lights. “I don’t decorate.”

“John suggested you might need some assistance. Torren, you and your sisters may start on the porch. Dr. McKay, please give me a hand with the tree.”

Maybe it was Teyla’s tone, or her polite way of ignoring his protests, but Rodney found himself helping to decorate one of the smaller pine trees while Teyla’s children wrapped the porch rails in lights and greenery.

“Another town tradition?” Rodney asked. “Aiden was decorating a tree out at the research station.”

“Most of us choose not to kill a tree merely to use it as a display one month out of the year,” Teyla said. She produced a step ladder from her Jeep so Rodney could get the lights all the way to the top. “In this way we respect the nature that surrounds us and also share Christmas cheer with our friends and neighbors.”

“Indoor trees are corpses,” one of her children added helpfully.

Anyone else would’ve sounded like one of those environmentalist nut-jobs that were always on the news, but coming from Teyla it all sounded very reasonable. And even Rodney had to admit that it looked very nice when it was all done. A little color and illumination against the perpetually dark winter sky.

“You’ll come back when it’s time to take them down?” Rodney asked, helping put the empty boxes back in the Jeep.

“Of course.”

“Do you have cocoa?” Teyla’s oldest, Torren, asked. “We’re cold.”

Rodney waited for Teyla to admonish him for being presumptive, but when she didn’t he wondered if that was part of the ritual, feeding the decorators. 

“Oh. Uh, I think so. You may as well come in.”

So much for those cookies he’d been saving.

*o*o*o*

Rodney sat on John’s couch, feet propped up on the coffee table and Mongo’s gigantic head in his lap. John was on the other end of the couch, working through a book of Sudoku puzzles. There was a fire going in the woodstove, and the front window was full of the soft glow of John’s outdoor Christmas cheer.

It was the most domestic Rodney had ever felt in his life, and he still wasn’t quite sure how he felt about that. 

The only concession to the holiday inside John’s house was a figure of Santa Claus piloting a biplane, and a greeting card signed by people Rodney didn’t know. Which was two more things than Rodney had in his own place.

“So,” John said, penciling in numbers on his puzzle. Rodney waited for a follow-up, but it seemed none was forthcoming.

“So what?”

“So…you sticking around for the holidays?”

John sounded like someone who was trying too hard to be casual. Rodney wasn’t the best judge of social cues, but he tried to pay closer attention where John was concerned. He set his tablet down on Mongo’s head. 

“Where else would I go?”

John shrugged, still focused in on his puzzle. “Home? Spend some time with your family?”

Rodney snorted. “Do I seem like the kind of person with a warm, fuzzy family waiting for him? Please.”

“Oh. Okay.” John still sounded disinterested, but his lips twitched up in a grin.

“You’re an idiot,” Rodney said. 

“Yup.”

Rodney picked his tablet back up, eliciting a huff from Mongo, and moved his foot along the top of the coffee table. John did the same until their toes were touching. Why the hell would he want to be anywhere else?

*o*o*o*

The week before Christmas, Santa came to Lantea on a dogsled, a big bag of toys with him. Rodney was pretty sure it was actually the guy who had led the memorial for Genevieve Peace, the one who raised sled dogs somewhere outside of town. What was his name? Carl? Cal?

“Cam,” John supplied, seemingly reading Rodney’s mind. He did that a lot.

The whole Santa thing was supposed to be for the kids, but almost every adult seemed to be in attendance as well, and just as excited. Everyone was packed into the community center, which was already decorated for the Christmas Ball that would be held later that night.

“I don’t understand why we have to be here,” Rodney complained. “I stopped believing in Santa when I was three years old.”

“We’re here because it’s fun to watch the kids,” John replied. “Just try to enjoy it.”

“That’s the first big lie parents tell their children. The first of many.” Rodney took a sip of his eggnog, little paper cups of which had been passed around. He wondered if his sister was teaching her daughter about Santa Claus. Jeannie had been so angry when he’d clued her in to the reality of things; for a four-year-old, her punch had packed a wallop.

“Bitter much?” John quipped. He looped an arm around Rodney’s shoulders. “Santa is a good lie.”

“No lie is a good lie.”

“That explains a lot about you, actually.” John pressed a kiss to the side of Rodney’s head just as a light flashed.

Clint, the part-time photographer who also ran the general store, grinned at them from behind his camera. “Lookin’ good, guys.”

Rodney blushed. “Shouldn’t you be wearing an elf costume or something?”

“Is that a short joke?” Clint asked, still grinning. “Coming from the guy dating an actual elf?”

“Hey!” John protested, putting a protective hand over one of his almost-pointy ears.

“See you at the dance tonight!” Clint called over his shoulder, moving to another part of the room to take more pictures of the kids.

“Do you think my ears are weird?” John asked Rodney.

“I think they’re ears.”

John didn’t look convinced, and Rodney had no idea what to say to make him feel better, so he kissed him. That always seemed to do the trick, and Rodney was confident in his ability to distract John. 

He was right, as always.

*o*o*o*

_Have yourself a merry little Christmas_  
 _Make the Yuletide gay_  
 _Next year all our troubles will be miles away_

Rodney hadn’t known what to expect from an Alaskan Christmas ball, but it turned out to be very similar to the one high school dance he’d attended as a teenager. Only better, because he had someone who wanted to dance with him under the sparkly disco ball.

“This town really loves Christmas,” Rodney said, swaying back and forth in John’s arms. “It’s alarming.”

“It’s a good way to beat back the dark,” John murmured in Rodney’s ear. “For a little while.”

It was a romantic notion, though nothing could change the fact that Lantea was in the dark for half the year. Or maybe John hadn’t meant that so literally.

“I had no idea you were so sentimental,” Rodney said.

“I have many layers, McKay.”

“Yes, yes. You’re very deep.”

In response to that, John unexpectedly dipped Rodney, bending him back and kissing him like they were in some kind of old-timey movie. Rodney found that equal parts embarrassing and incredibly hot.

“How long do we have to stay?” he asked breathlessly once John had righted him again.

“Not long,” John promised.

_Anthropologically speaking, holiday traditions are important part of our shared history. These rituals are reminders of family, of childhood memories, of moments when we connected on deeper levels to the people around us. We know what’s expected of us, whether it be blessings recited, toasts given, or special dishes prepared._

_Here in Lantea we decorate live trees with Christmas cheer, and hold contests to demonstrate our skill and creativity. We share our holidays with our friends, our family, and our neighbors. It’s a reminder that we’re part of something bigger than ourselves, a community of caring individuals who all bring something special to the mix._

_It’s not about religion, or commercialism, or obligation. The holiday season is about making connections, reinforcing bonds, and reminding ourselves what it means to be alive._

_This is Blair Sandburg, coming to you live from the Lantea Christmas Ball. May all your days be merry and bright!_

**Author's Note:**

>  **AN:** Words were hard to come by these last couple of months, but I absolutely wanted to write at least one Christmas fic. And where better to set it, than in my little Alaskan town of Lantea?
> 
> A very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all my readers!


End file.
